Charleston Currents #12.47 | Oct. 12, 2020
BIG MARCH. Hundreds of women — and a few men — marched Saturday morning from Colonial Lake to Brittlebank Park in Charleston as a local version of the fifth annual National Women’s March. The national event drew thousands to the National Mall in Washington, as highlighted by NPR. Below, find a photo essay by Charleston Currents photographer and local Realtor Rob Byko of Sullivan’s Island.
TODAY’S FOCUS: F*ck cancer
COMMENTARY, Brack: GOP missed opportunity by neglecting health care policy
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Magnolia Plantation and Gardens
NEWS BRIEFS: Holiday Festival of Lights set to kick off Nov. 13
PHOTO ESSAY, Byko: Hundreds of women march Saturday in Charleston
FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
MYSTERY PHOTO: Shipping memorial
CALENDAR: Jazz, poetry, Blue Dogs and more
NEW BOOK: Meet three people associated with Charleston
F*ck cancer
By Catherine Brack, special to Charleston Currents | October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and for many, it is pink: Pink ribbons, walks and fashion shows featuring pink clothing, shoes and cocktails. If there needs to be an awareness month to inspire more women to schedule mammograms and have real talks about their health with their doctors, then great. Keep it up.
Catherine Brack
But if this is about the symbolism of a month or a ribbon or socializing at walks or parties, then that’s nothing but Barbie-fying breast cancer. It desensitizes the public to the reality of breast cancer. It fails to illustrate how difficult this disease is to detect, much less treat.
Breast cancer is vile. It is soul-destroying. It is physically painful. It is an emotional terrorist. It is my reality, every single day.
I talk openly about cancer because I want people to understand the face of cancer. I never wanted this reality. I never wanted the surgeries or scars. I never thought I could be facing death at my age, 51, and yet, here I am. Cancer sucks, but that’s not even close to sufficient description.
So let’s have a real discussion about vile disease.
One reality: You diligently get your annual mammogram. Over the years, some come back with anomalies, so you go back for another mammogram to confirm or deny the first one, and sometimes you are treated to a sonogram or biopsy, just to be sure. And for many, this is it. This is your big scare and you go on with your life.
But then too many women — and a few men — face this: Your mammograms may come back “unremarkable,” but then a few months later, you find a lump. Your doctor suggests another mammogram, which leads you down the sonogram/biopsy/MRI path. Long needles in sensitive areas get jammed into you multiple times. It hurts. Cancer confirmed; treatment begins. For me, this meant chemotherapy, surgery and radiation.
In very basic terms, chemotherapy kills fast-growing cancer cells. I had 16 intravenous rounds of chemo, and during those five months, I experienced every side effect you could have. Hair loss. Hemorrhoids. Dry eyes. Chronic fatigue. Low iron. Grey skin. Poor memory. Weight loss.
Then comes some kind of surgery, from a lumpectomy to mastectomy. And this often is followed with radiation to try to kill off anything left. Radiation leaves you burned, blistered, tattooed and tired.
I celebrated the end of my treatment and my 50th birthday within a few days of each other. Unfortunately, I celebrated too soon. Eleven months to the day of the end of my initial treatment, I was re-diagnosed and elected to have my breasts amputated. “Bi-lateral mastectomy” is too clinical of a term for what happened. My breasts and nipples were cut away and discarded.
No doctor can ever prepare you for the loss of your breasts and the drainage tubes that accompany recovery. Gross is an understatement. And before breast implants can be added, a tissue expander is inserted where your breasts were to help stretch the skin. Then you are injected with saline on a bi-weekly basis for three months, a process that while not painful, is incredibly uncomfortable.
I was thrilled to have my implants inserted and move beyond cancer, only to be told, a month after implant surgery, that I again had breast cancer, which, to the layman, seems impossible. It’s not. Metastasized breast cancer travels. It can also go into your bones, your lungs and your brain, your soft tissue, and for me, the chest wall. And it does horrible things to each area — bones that look like honeycombs, lungs that struggle to function, brain tumors and skin lesions that look like a bad case of teenage acne.
Right now, I don’t know if the latest treatments will work. I have real, fact-based talks with my oncologist, who I appreciate more than he will ever know. As sick as I am, when you see me, you’d never even notice. I don’t look like a face of cancer. But the awful reality is: cancer has no real look. It doesn’t discriminate, and it just needs one cell it can invade to destroy a life, wreak havoc with a family and long-term plans into short term must-do’s.
So, during Breast Cancer Awareness month, get a mammogram. Donate to research. But don’t dare to think a cute fashion show or cocktails event is going to beat this demon.
Catherine Brack of Charleston is a nonprofit executive. Disclosure: Her brother is publisher of our sister newspaper, the Charleston City Paper, where it was first published.
GOP missed opportunity by neglecting health care policy
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Health care is a sleeper issue that just might bite the Republican Party in the butt in 2020, just like it did at the midterm elections of 2018.
Imagine if the GOP had come up with some kind of inviting national proposal to provide affordable health care that was an alternative to Obamacare, instead of standing in the way and saying no, just like it has done for years. Just having a plan — something long promised and undelivered upon by President Trump — would have shown engagement on the issue that remains high on Americans’ minds, particularly with a pandemic killing more than 200,000 people since the beginning of the year.
These thoughts came to mind during conversations this week with two longtime Republican friends in Florida, both of whom have cancer. One, who said he would hold his nose and vote for Trump because of his economic policies, thought the president wouldn’t be behind in national polls had the GOP not ceded leadership on health care to Democrats, particularly with so many Americans attuned to the nation’s health during the pandemic.
The other, a lawyer, said he no longer would vote for Trump because of leadership and character issues. But he agreed the president has made it much easier for the Democratic message to be heard — particularly by older Americans who fear the destructiveness of coronavirus.
Had there been better leadership and engagement on the virus and on health care in general, the political landscape might be vastly different with less than three weeks before the election.
A South Carolina Republican operative, who asked not to be identified, recognized the pickle the party was in: “The administration has missed chance after chance to effectively talk about policy issues, such as health care, or tell stories about what they believe are accomplishments because they have been distracted by the off-message personalities involved in decision-making. There is without a doubt a cost associated with these missteps, and the size of it we will see on election day.”
Another GOP insider observed the party missed a huge opportunity, especially after the 2018 election in which health care was a major driver. Engaging on health care would have shown leadership, he said.
“Everything is framed around health care with COVID-19 being the overwhelming shadow. Just opposing it, trying to overturn it both legislatively and in the courts without offering a legitimate, working solution, does seem to be short-sighted.”
For years, the Republican plan on health care has been little more than being against whatever the Democrats wanted or passed. When the GOP held the majority in the U.S. House, members voted endlessly to try to dump the Affordable Care Act. The alternative? Nada.
Meanwhile, South Carolina was one of 14 states in which legislators refused, year after year, to accept billions in federal money to expand the federal Medicaid program to provide coverage for some 200,000 mostly poor residents. The result: A 2019 study showed nearly one in 10 older and poor S.C. residents who died in five years starting in 2014 likely would be alive today had they had access to care.
Dr. Robert Saul, a Greenville pediatrician, sees inaction on expanding health care as dangerous, particularly for children.
“Too many of our vulnerable children have less than adequate insurance or have too many obstacles to that care,” he said. “Now, add on top of this, uncertainty about the continuation of a less-than-perfect health insurance system that is under attack and threatened with possible termination. Then add to that, no tangible replacement in sight! The party that follows the latter path is certainly not helping their fellow citizens.”
In the 2020 election, health care might just be the sleeper issue of the campaign. Republicans often talk about how Trump will win because of the “silent majority” of Trump voters who don’t want to tip their hands to the media, pollsters or anybody else. But if there are silent Trump voters, wouldn’t you think there probably are a similar bunch of quiet voters who will pull levers for Biden because they don’t want neighbors to know they’re voting for a Democrat, particularly one who cares about health care?
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Charleston Currents. Have a comment? Have a comment? Send to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com.
Magnolia Plantation and Gardens
The public spiritedness of our underwriters allows us to bring Charleston Currents to you at no cost. Today we shine our spotlight on Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, founded in 1676 by the Drayton family.
It has survived the centuries and witnessed the history of our nation unfold before it from the American Revolution through the Civil War and beyond. It is the oldest public tourist site in the Lowcountry and the oldest public gardens in America, opening its doors to visitors in 1870. Open 365 days a year, Magnolia offers its visitors splendid tours of nature and history and the role African-Americans played in the development of its award-winning Romantic-style gardens.
- Visit www.magnoliaplantation.com to learn how you can experience a complete plantation experience.
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Holiday Festival of Lights set to kick off Nov. 13
Staff reports | Children won’t be able to sit in Santa’s lap this year for pictures at regular visits to the annual Holiday Festival of Lights, but they will offer photos with a popular Old St. Nick uring select daytime visits. Families can sign up for a timeframe visit with Santa during the day at James Island County Park, according to Charleston County Parks. Sessions come complete with a private visit and a photo package from the official Holiday Festival of Lights photographer Gary Coleman. For details or to register, visit HolidayFestivalofLights.com.
The annual event opens NOv. 13 for the 31st year at James Island County Park with a dazzling array of displays and about 2 million lights. The festival will be open every evening nightly from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. through Dec. 31, 2020.
“Charleston County Parks is thrilled to offer the Holiday Festival of Lights to the community this year,” said Parks Executive Director David Bennett. “While the event has been modified for these challenging times, the heart of the festival – its driving tour – remains unchanged to safely delight families and guests of all ages.”
At the lights festival, you can take a heartwarming cruise along the three-mile display of glimmering lights with your closest companions. The driving tour features over 700 light displays, most of which were created in-house by park staff. Displays range from traditional holiday scenes to Lowcountry icons such as Rainbow Row and the Cooper River and Ravenel Bridges; to various themed sections that delight all ages like Sea Land, Dinosaur Land, Candy Land and Toy Land. For details or to register, visit HolidayFestivalofLights.com.
In other recent news:
Trident Tech gets $1.9 million grant. The Department of Defense has awarded Trident Technical College $1.9 million to implement the Building Outreach Opportunities to Motivate and Inspire the Next Generation in STEM initiative to help address acute STEM workforce needs in the Charleston region. Working with partners Joint Base Charleston and the Charleston Promise Neighborhood, Trident Tech will use the funding to provide camps and coursework to engage youth in STEM activities and connect them to educational offerings and work experiences. The project will create STEM career pathways for military-connected, rural and disadvantaged K-12 students, primarily focusing on students age 7 to 18.
Poems by Platt. James Island poet Eugene Platt has a new work published by Revival Press of Limerick, Ireland. Nudas Veritas ($20 online; or $5.99 for Kindle edition) “invites us to travel with him on a survey of a long writing life in poems that cloak their craft and technique in language deceptively simple and direct,” one reviewer said. “He confronts tragedies and disappointments without bitterness or sentimentality, finding joy and hope in unexpected places. Eugene’s poetry speaks from the heart with a clarity of vision and generosity of spirit which make this volume a delight to read.”
Museum Mile Month. January will offer a chance for local residents to visit 13 area attractions downtown by purchasing a Museum Mile Month pass. Passholders can spend an entire month learning about the city’s rich history and culture while visiting sites in the order that best fits their schedule. Tickets — $35 for adults and $10 for children — can be purchased in advance via Charleston’s Museum Mile website through December 31, making these passes a great holiday gift.
How do you spend $85 million? With news last week of fundraising by U.S. Sen. LIndsay Graham and his Democratic challenger, Jaime Harrison, Statehouse Report’s Lindsay Street dives into finding answers for this question. The answer: Do lots of stuff and more of it. Read the full story.
More than 1M expected to vote absentee in S.C. A record number of South Carolinians have voted absentee, both in person and by mail, and based on current trends, more than 1 million voters will likely vote before election day, according to the state Election Commission. So far, 637,000 absentee ballots have been issued. In 2016, a total of 517,000 voted absentee. And friendly reminder: Voters seeking to vote by mail must return their request application by Oct. 24. Learn more.
Bad ballots in Charleston County reported. More than 1,300 incorrect mail-in ballots were sent out in Charleston County. Those ballots have been resent to the West Ashley voters affected. Read more.
Charm v. high energy in the fight for First Congressional District. South Carolina’s First Congressional District race in the Lowcountry has attracted national attention as Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham takes on Republican challenger and state Rep. Nancy Mace. Our sister publication, the Charleston City Paper, published profiles on both candidates last week:
Statehouse Report’s Lindsay Street contributed to this report. Have a comment? Send to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com
Hundreds of women march Saturday in Charleston
By Rob Byko, contributing photographer
An estimated 300 people turned out Saturday for a march from Colonial Lake to Brittlebank Park as part of about 400 women’s marches across the country. Here are some photos from the Charleston event:
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Shipping memorial
Here’s an outdoor artwork of a ship. What and where is it? (Caution: It may or may not be in South Carolina.) Send to editor@charlestoncurrents.com. And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live.
Our previous Mystery Photo
Our Oct. 12 photo, “Off the top of your head, where is this?,” was a joke that sent Daniel Prohaska of Moncks Corner into peals of laughter: “I laughed my head off with your Mystery Photo pun this week! Haha! That’s the Gedney Main Howe Jr. bust in Lawrimore Park just outside the historic Charleston County Courthouse. The bust was placed there in 2002. Howe was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in June of 1937 and practiced law in the city of Charleston from that date until his death in 1981, except for four years while in the United States Navy during World War II. He was elected circuit solicitor of the Ninth Judicial Circuit in 1946 and served without opposition until his resignation in 1956.”
Others who correctly identified the statue (based on only the top of Howe’s head) were: Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; Charlie Morrison of Mashpee, Mass.; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; and Jay Altman of Columbia, S.C.
- Send us a mystery: If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send it along to editor@charlestoncurrents.com.
Jazz, poetry, Blue Dogs and more
Sounds of the Lowcountry: 6 p.m., Oct. 23, Firefly Distillery, North Charleston. The Charleston Jazz Orchestra will pay homage to early jazz incubated by the Jenkins Orphanage Band, which produced jazz greats such as William “Cat” Anderson, Jabbo Smith and Freddie Green at this new CJO Live at Firefly series. Based on the rhythms of the Gullah/Geechee Culture, that Lowcountry Swing can be found in some of our favorite tunes – Until I Met You, Tuxedo Junction, and Porgy & Bess. From Ragtime to Broadway and everything in between, the CJO will explore the Sounds of the Lowcountry with music that is distinctly Charleston Jazz. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased at www.charlestonjazz.com or by calling the box office at 843.641.0011. Doors open at 5pm. Show begins at 6pm.
Ukweli Poetry Series: 1 p.m., Oct. 24, McLeo Historic Plantation Site, James Island. The can’t-miss Ukweli poetry and lecture series continues with this installment, “The Dehumanization of Africans in America and Jim Crow.” It will explore poems by Horace Mungin and Osei Chandler, and welcome historian Damon Fordham’s analysis.
Safe Sounds at Firefly: Saturdays through Oct. 31, Firefly Distillery, North Charleston. The distillery’s socially-distanced concerts are back with its fall Safe Sounds series. The next show is Oct. 24 with the Blue Dogs, who will offer bluegrass worthy of being blasted out of the windows of a Plymouth Barracuda with 451 Hemi engine, the Blue Dogs boast a personal history that has endeared themselves to the nascent “alt-country” scene with a whiz-bang melding of roots-rock rumble, bluegrass chicanery, and honky-tonk reverence. Doors open at 6 p.m., with shows at 6:30 p.m. Tickets ($120 for four) can be purchased in advance at citypapertickets.com.
“Connections” on display: Through Oct. 24, Redux Contemporary Art Center, Charleston. The exhibition of works by Gret Macintosh features looks at physical connections between places, such as waterways, roads, and bridges that the artist has experienced over the last 15 years of living in the Charleston area. The exhibition is open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Mondays and Wednesdays; 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fridays; and by appointment. More.
State of the Ports: 11 a.m. Oct. 28, streamed event. You can join a live-streamed event as SC Ports Authority President and CEO Jim Newsome delivers his 12th State of the Port Address with updates on infrastructure, the new global supply chain, and strategic initiatives for the authority.
From Etchings to Pastels: Through Nov. 29, Lowcountry Image Gallery, The Charleston Museum. The museum has partnered with the Pastel Society of South Carolina to present new interpretations of etchings stemming from the Charleston Renaissance Movement about 100 years ago. Learn more.
Online offerings:
- Gibbes Museum. You can enjoy lots of local art offerings through the website and social media accounts of the Gibbes Museum. At 10 a.m. on weekdays, the museum posts virtual readings and workshops on Facebook. Find more online.
- Avian Conservation Center. Access videos and live streaming presentations online to learn about what’s going on at the Center for Birds of Prey.
- Around the world. You can visit 500 museums across the world online through this Google amalgamation of sites.
If you have any online events, drop us a line (editor@charlestoncurrents.com) and make sure to put “Online event” in the subject line. Similarly, if you’ve got cool ideas for stuff to do while in isolation at home, send them our way.
Meet three people associated with Charleston
Staff reports | History books are filled with people from Charleston or who are intimately associated with it. Here are three people known far and wide who are among the several profiled in the new book, 350 Facts About Charleston.
- ORDER NOW: Copies are in Lowcountry-area bookstores now, but if you can’t swing by, you can order a copy online today.
Conroy’s lush novels captured the essence of the Lowcountry
One of the Lowcountry’s best-known authors, Pat Conroy spent his college years at The Citadel in Charleston. Conroy’s debut novel, The Boo (1970) featured his alma mater. His books drip with beautiful descriptions of the Lowcountry and blend broad themes of family, the military and the post-World War II South. Conroy’s most well-known books include The Water is Wide (1972), The Great Santini (1976), The Lords of Discipline (1980) and The Prince of Tides (1986). His book South of Broad (2009) was set in Charleston and covers the tales from Leopold Bloom King through the 1960s and 1980s. The book includes Charleston’s darker legacy of racism and class divisions. He died March 4, 2016, at the age of 70.
Green paints with intensity and vibrancy
Painter and printmaker Jonathan Green, born in 1955 in rural Gardens Corner in Beaufort County, is known for bold use of vibrant colors in iconic Lowcountry scenes reflecting African American traditions. His popular work, seen throughout Charleston in offices, homes, museums and retail shops, is filled with references to “memories of local African American traditions, as well as tales and stories told by members of his extended family and friends,” according to museum curator Jay Williams. “The artist’s paintings reflect an authentic historical understanding of Lowcountry culture, although he sometimes takes poetic license with his subject matter. Green’s Lowcountry subjects may or may not be factually realistic, but they communicate a strong sense of conceptual accuracy.” Green lives in the Charleston area today.
Fairey forever changes presidential posters
Charleston native and street artist Shepard Fairey is best known for his iconic “Hope” poster that supported Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. But Fairey’s graphic art has long been familiar on Charleston streets, windows and telephone boxes through his “Obey Giant” sticker campaign. He developed the homage to wrestler and actor Andre the Giant that reportedly was originally developed in 1989 while he attended the Rhode Island School of Design. According to ObeyGiant.com, “The OBEY sticker campaign can be explained as an experiment in Phenomenology. … Phenomenology attempts to enable people to see clearly something that is right before their eyes but obscured; things that are so taken for granted that they are muted by abstract observation.” Fairey’s bold imagery is in collections around the country. He and his family live in Los Angeles. His parents live in Charleston.
- Preview the book by visiting CharlestonFacts.com.
- Lindsay Street contributed to 350 Facts About Charleston, from which these entries are excerpted.
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